I'm going to go ahead and try this talking about gear bit early on so I can get it out of the way! Pictured here is the instrument that has been with me the longest, my trusty '69 Stratocaster. I bought this in Baltimore 1990. Yeah, it's just like the one Jimi and Gilmour played, a rare Maple Cap model. I was an obsessive Jimi hendrix fan as a teenager, by the time I was 17 I had amassed 40 records of his, mostly bootlegs. Thank goodness I have a streak in me that get's really bored and I moved out of that phase and got into "what did Jimi listen to?" That led me to Muddy Waters and Rashaan Roland Kirk.
That phase is gone but this guitar remains. I don't play it much anymore outside of recordings, truth be known I've been a bit of a hipster in a past life and the Strat isn't exactly hip. In fact for a while it was damned embarassing to have a Strat. You know, those award shows with Clapton and countless other geezers playing Strats in the television. It looks like 6 dudes with their pants down! And they all sound so bad to me.
But......this instrument is just so good, that's why I keep it around. And gotta admit as far as electric guitars go Fender nailed it with this model, nothing does what it does as well as it does. Heck, listen to Buddy Guy. Strat and amp, that's it. You don't want any pedals when the universe is at your fingertips! I think that's my favorite part about this guitar, the name. Stratocaster. Leo liked the future, liked possiblilty. After being in my life for 23 years I still haven't found all the possibilities this guitar offers me. And when I do play it live I'm in love again.
When I bought this guitar it was just a used guitar, not 'vintage' so it was cheap. I had Fralin rewind the lead pickup so it's good and hot. That lead pickup can simply dissappear and I don't like that, I like mids.
I'm over the hip phase so it's making the rounds again, don't care what is cool and what isn't. Hipsters are pretty uptight. Maybe the proper term can be Uptightsters.
JB
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